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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
.,
4
140
MARCO POLO BOOK I.
covered with gilding and exquisite painting. And there
were runnels too, flowing freely with wine and milk and
honey and water ; and numbers of ladies and of the most
beautiful damsels in the world, who could play on all
manner of instruments, and sung most sweetly, and
danced in a manner that it was charming to behold.
For the Old Man desired to make his people believe
that this was actually Paradise. So he had fashioned
it after the description that Mahommet gave of his
Paradise, to wit, that it should be a beautiful garden
running with conduits of wine and milk and honey and
water, and full of lovely women for the delectation of all
its inmates. And sure enough the Saracens of those
parts believed that it was Paradise !
Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save
those whom he intended to be his ASHISHIN. There
was a Fortress at the entrance to the Garden, strong
enough to resist all the world, and there was no other
way to get in. He kept at his Court a number of the
youths of the country, from 12 to . 20 years of age, such
as had a taste for soldiering, and to these he used to tell
tales about Paradise, just as Mahommet had been wont
to do, and they believed in him just as the Saracens
believe in Mahommet. Then he would introduce them
into his garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time,
having first made them drink a certain potion which
cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to
be lifted and carried in. So when they awoke, they
found themselves in the Gardena
NOTE I.-4—Says the venerable Sire de Joinville : " Le Vieil de la Montaingne ne créoit pas en Mahomnzet, ainçois créoit en la Loi de Haali, qui fu O;zcle Mahomnzet." This is a crude statement, no doubt, but it has a germ of truth. Adherents of the family of 'Ali as the true successors of the Prophet existed from the tragical day of the death of Husain, and among these, probably owing to the secrecy with which they were compelled to hold their allegiance, there was always a tendency to all manner of
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